U.S. attorney slams Sheldon Silver scheme as 'all about money' in closing arguments

Jurors began deliberating at Sheldon Silver's retrial Thursday after hearing simple advice from a prosecutor: it's about what one of New York's most powerful politicians put in his pocket.

"It is clear as day this is all about the money for Sheldon Silver," Assistant US Attorney Tatiana Martins said in closing arguments at Silver's fraud and extortion trial in Manhattan federal court.

Advertisement

Silver, 74, didn't betray any nervousness about the outcome on Thursday. Asked by the Daily News in the morning how he felt, he answered, "I don't know."

Jurors got the case shortly before 5 p.m. and worked until 5:30 p.m. before Judge Valerie Caproni sent them home. They'll resume deliberations Friday.

In her closing, Martins outlined how Silver sent $500,000 in taxpayer grant money to Dr. Robert Taub's mesothelioma research lab at Columbia medical school and got names of Taub's patients in return.

Those patient names made Silver rich, Martins said. The law firm Weitz & Luxenberg pursued asbestos claims and lawsuits on their behalf, and paid Silver $3 million in referral fees.

"Why did Silver do all this? Why did he use his immense power to help Dr. Taub, a man he barely knew?" Martins asked. She answered her own question, "There were three million reasons for it ... Dr. Taub was Sheldon Silver's golden goose."

Martins also talked about Silver's collection of $800,000 in legal referral fees from childhood friend and lawyer Jay Arthur Goldberg. Silver got Goldberg work form two real estate developers Glenwood Management and the Witkoff Group, which have an interest in the Legislature's handling of rent regulation and housing finance laws.

"This is bribery. This is extortion. This is corruption — the real thing," Martins told the jury. "Don't let it stand."

"It was legal," countered Michael Feldberg, Silver's lawyer. "And even if you think it was unseemly, that is no reason to find Shelly Silver guilty of the crimes charged."

Besides, Feldberg said, being a member of the state Assembly or Senate is a part-time job. "It is perfectly legal for a New York State legislator to earn outside income," he said.

Referral fees from law firms like those Silver got from Goldberg and Weitz & Luxenberg are "common, standard and accepted," Feldberg said.

Silver's original conviction was overturned by an appeals court last July. Caproni sentenced him to 12 years in prison after he was convicted at his first trial in November 2015.